TV star and founder of the Everything Electric expos says V2G is the one “frustrating thing that is going to make a massive difference” in convincing the public to switch to EVs.
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Speeding up access to the technology that can power your home from your car is “critically important” in the transition to electric vehicles, a leading advocate for clean energy has said.
Robert Llewellyn, founder of the Everything Electric electric vehicle and home energy expo, said the time it is taking for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-home (V2H) technology to become mainstream is frustratingly slow.
“I remember going to discussions about V2G in like 2012 and going, ‘Oh, that's brilliant’. That would be great, but even now it’s still not there yet,” Llewellyn told Drive.
Australia has one of the highest rates of rooftop solar systems in the world. It’s theoretically a natural asset we can use to drive our transition to renewables.
According to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, there were four million installations across the country in late 2024, or roughly one in three Aussie homes.
Yet the V2G rollout has been a sluggish process, as it depends on approvals for cables, permission from car makers, and agreements with individual power network operators.
Llewellyn, best known for his roles in popular British TV shows Red Dwarf and Scrapheap Challenge, said speeding up access to V2G is “the really critically important thing”.
Not only is it “going to make a massive difference” in terms of uptake, Llewellyn said, but it also saves money on household costs and helps the environment.
“I think the thing that I have been waiting for that's been frustrating is the fact that if you've got an electric car, it's a giant battery on wheels,” Llewellyn told Drive.
“And that means that there's electricity in it. And that means you could plug it into your house and run your cooker, your freezer, and everything else from it when electricity is expensive.
“At the moment, we just leave cars that we're not using in the way. They're just big blocks of stuff that aren't any use. They're just pointless. They don't do anything. They don't help anyone.
“If you've got electric cars that you plug in and can send power out and take power in when it's cheap, you've suddenly got a very useful commodity that's gonna help the whole country, not just the individual.
“Once you've got a couple of million electric cars on the road, and say a million of them can send electricity both ways, that’s going to make a massive difference.”
While selling power back to the grid sounds great, most people, said Llewellyn, just want their vehicle to help power their home, covering their own needs, with selling back to make money, and helping out with blackouts and supplying a bonus.
Speaking at one of the event’s discussions on the topic, panellists talked about the idea that V2G remains “an abstract thing” that many people don’t fully understand.
Daniel Bleakley, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of New Energy Transport, agreed with Llewellyn that getting it into the mainstream is key to the transition to EVs.
“Vehicle-to-grid is one of the most understated opportunities for decarbonisation that's out there.
“And I know ARENA has done some great work with some of the research and reports that it has produced, showing that even if 10 per cent of all passenger vehicles were using vehicle-to-grid, we would see a huge drop in peak demand for electricity across the country.
“So there's a huge, untapped resource there in people's garages, in homes around the country. That's super exciting.”
South Australia was the first state to offer it widely back in 2024. However, the technology is also accessible in Victoria and New South Wales, but only through limited energy providers, often as part of a trial rather than being open to all.
Examples of such trials include those undertaken by two of Australia's biggest electricity providers – Origin Energy and AGL.
The 12-month AGL trial is the more comprehensive of the two, open to select Hyundai, Kia, BYD and Zeekr vehicles owned by customers living under all the major national electricity market (NEM) Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs) in VIC, NSW, QLD and SA. According to Kia, its EV3, EV6, and EV9 models offer V2G as part of the trial, but owners outside of this using the tech might not necessarily be covered under warranty.
As a result, there are now a limited number of chargers available to buy, with more expected to become available as they are approved.
Charging provider Revcharge is now bringing two V2G chargers to market: the Starcharge Halo, which was on show at the Everything Electric event, and the V2G Numbat, both of which you can purchase without being part of a trial or waiting list.
However, there’s still another missing link – there are only a few cars on sale that are capable of doing it.
Only a handful of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on sale in Australia currently support V2G – including the Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi Outlander – though it is understood more models on the market have the necessary hardware to unlock the technology, it’s just a matter of having a legal charger and updating the software.
According to Zecar, overseas trials by AmbiBox indicate that most EVs are capable of V2G, but the car makers themselves have not publicly confirmed it.
For example, Mercedes-Benz has already launched bi-directional charging in European markets, and the new CLA and GLC electric cars will have both V2G and V2H when they launch in Australia in the second half of next year.
Samantha Johnson, Head of OEM and Dealership Finance at Plenti, which provides loans for EVs and renewable energy products, said even with V2G moving along at a snail’s pace, there are good deals out there on energy plans for EVs, with many networks offering special tariffs for owners.
“From a financing point of view, the benefits of getting into an EV, both the economic and environmental benefits, are absolutely amplified when you marry that with a renewable home energy solution,” the former Managing Director of Polestar Australia and CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council said.
“If you're looking at your EV, you're looking at your solar panels, your batteries, even air-conditioning, heating and other things around the house as well. The whole solution needs to be taken into account.”
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A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.
